The present invention relates to cigarettes. More particularly, the invention relates to safeguarding cigarettes from becoming a source of fire.
One of the common causes of death by fire is related to the smoking of cigarettes in bed. Aircraft fires attributable to ignition of plastic furnishings by cigarettes dropped or set aside carelessly have caused their deaths. Other circumstances include forest fires and house fires originating from carpets and furniture, traceable to similar situations. In all of these instances, the source of ignition is the burning end of the cigarette.
One of the most critical problems confronting developers of cigarettes and cigarette manufacturers has been how to make a cigarette which will automatically self-extinguish if the smoker fails to continue drawing on the cigarette. The National Fire Association has concluded that cigarettes provided the source of ignition for over thirty-five percent of one and two-fatality fires in the United States from 1971 to 1978. The Association further concluded that 16.9% of the fires were caused by cigarettes' igniting bedding in sleeping areas.
In an effort to reduce the frequency of such fires, the National Fire Association and several other associations have endorsed a Cigarette Safety Act which would stipulate that all cigarettes and small cigars made in the United States should self-extinguish within five minutes if left unattended. Cigarettes will normally burn for a maximum of twenty-four minutes if left unattended. Proponents for the aforesaid safety legislation have estimated that hundreds of lives could be saved and thousands of costly fires prevented every year if a self-extinguishing cigarette were developed.
In response to these demands a number of self-extinguishing cigarettes and cigarette-holders have been invented and patented. Prominent and important examples include those disclosed by U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,570,645 and 4,572,217 to Newman, Sr., et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 4,703,766 to Wargo. These patents are incorporated herein by reference.
While the patents cited above disclose important developments in the state of the art, they fail to provide a fail-safe mechanism or means for preventing the burning tip of the cigarette from contacting or closely approaching any horizontal surface on which the cigarette or cigarette-holder may be resting. Thus, self-extinguishing cigarettes as disclosed by the above patents, if thrown from the windows of automobiles, dropped on a rug or a bed, or allowed to come into close proximity of or in direct contact with the surface of a flammable material such as most plastics, dry grass, or bed linen, could possible ignite such material and start a fire. Even though the burning tip should be shielded from direct contact with the flammable material, the possibility exists that very close proximity of the tip to the flammable surface would cause the latter to ignite.